Open Digital Europe

Social Businesses

Out of the Box International works with already existing hubs, various local and national stakeholders and social entrepreneurs in order to further develop and promote successful social entrepreneurship policies and practices.

Projects

The idea of the project ”Modern Youth NGO Management – The Challenge of Professionalism” lies in the notion that youth work is a progressive field that provides space and opportunities for young people to shape their own future and has the very important role of encouraging them to take responsibility and get involved in shaping society beyond individual interests. However, in Europe we only find a few countries with well-established youth work policies and structures governed by public authorities with paid youth workers, developed vocational training, and higher education curricula for the youth work studies.

According to the desk research developed in the preparation of this project application, we lack quality studies on youth work across Europe. Moreover, the institutional framework for Youth Policy at the European level is not very “young” compared to other sectors, but the achievements are especially disappointing in terms of the recognition of youth work as a profession and the youth sector in general. This project emphasizes that common action is needed to gather relevant experiences, expertise, and act together to define common strategies for higher education in the field of youth. The first step in this direction is the creation of a common research that can identify the existing studies and propose a model for future studies of youth work including bachelor and MA studies.

The project was realized in the period September 2015 – August 2016 by joint efforts of Out of the Box International, the Key-Cyprus and ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITESI VAKFI under the programme: Erasmus+, Key Action 2 Strategic Partnership in the field of Youth.

Why Out of the Box International

The seemingly ever-lasting depression of European economies has shaken the very foundations of many European societies. The shear rate of unemployment in Europe and the omnipresent environmental crisis coupled with the often frustratingly slow process of decision making in the EU, are calling for civil society actors to step in and fill the void.

In the aftermath of the 2008. economic crisis, the apprehension of falling under the spell of apathy of economic depression across the continent has not been easy to shake off. However, pinpointing the culprits for the current state of affairs on any particular EU decision maker is not the answer. Nonetheless, the fact remains that the current approach to the economic and environmental crisis hasn’t yet shown the affected citizens the light at the end of the tunnel.

As representatives of the civil society we feel the need to make our voice heard in the midst of the current debate on economic crisis. Being a social enterprise we offer new and feasible ideas in education and community work, creative cross-sectorial cooperation among different actors and strong networking coalitions to turn these dire economic challenges into possibilities through social entrepreneurship initiatives which aim at benefiting wide range of citizens, particularly vulnerable groups and those affected by the economic crisis.

Social entrepreneurship is a simple concept that has been put into practice by civil society actors for the benefit of a specific social group or people, and this is precisely what we want: to create projects and initiatives with fresh ideas in different policies, educational programs or tools, support businesses, empower cultural initiatives and offer different solutions to individuals, corporate bodies, everybody who believe that we can have more Creative, Innovative and Cohesive Europe.